Almost childless for Mother's Day

Both my kids almost died this week. In two different circumstances nonetheless. First was Kanoba's stint with death.

Kanoba was in his room "sleeping". He had fallen asleep in the car for 2 minutes so of course that was all the sleep he thought he needed for the rest of the day. Ha. Well I figured since he was in his room I'd let him be for awhile before I went in there and tried to get him to go to sleep again. He came out a little later with my water mug from the hospital and said "Mommy, your medicine is yucky". Uh, what medicine? He had found my little baggie of extra strength Tylenol (for emergencies) at the far reaches of his dresser. The dresser that happens to be a good 5 feet tall and massive. I knew I should have put that baggie away when I saw it a few weeks ago. Anyhow, he had taken at least 4 pills, maybe 5, and put them in the water and drank some. The pills were at the bottom, partially dissolved, with white residue all over the jug and some on his lips. I wasn't too worried, but worried enough that I quickly called poison control- something I have never had the privilege of doing, thank goodness. I have been very lucky in the fact that Kanoba is actually quite good at staying out of bad/ dangerous substances in the house. The man on the phone asked me 20 questions and determined that Kanoba would have to have eaten 4 pills in order to be in danger of liver failure. I felt much better after hearing this because I think Kanoba had only taken a few sips of water and realized it was disgusting and there were still undissolved pills at the bottom of the jug. I was pretty certain he hadn't had much medication. I had to convince the Poison Control guy of that however. I then had a serious talk with Kanoba about not eating medicine. Thank goodness he didn't have any of the side effects and we didn't end up in the hospital. Whew! I survived my first real toxic substance with children episode.

Next day Pumpkin had a run in with death. Or almost death. Or severely freaking out her mommy. This also, surprise, had to do with Kanoba. He was really on one this week. Pumpkin was playing on the floor and Kanoba and I were enjoying some Gushers fruit snacks. I got sidetracked by something, I think the TV, and Kanoba came running over to me and said "Mommy, Pumpkin likes it!". I put two and two together and ran over to Pumpkin and asked Kanoba if he gave her some fruit snack. He said yes. She was just lying there with big eyes just looking at me. Thoughts were racing through my mind like she can't breathe, what do I do? Can I remember how to do the Heimlich on a baby? Ahhhhh!! Finally I took action and opened her mouth, didn't see anything then did a mouth sweep with my finger. The fruit snack (which is round, thick and very sticky- perfect fit in a baby's windpipe) had stuck to the top of her mouth. Whew! Huge sigh of relief. Pumpkin wasn't sure what was going on and what that strange, sweet object was in her mouth. I had another serious talk with Kanoba about not feeding the baby anything and that she only drinks milk. Kanoba has been very good at obeying this rule but I think I threw him off last weekend when I tried to give Pumpkin some oatmeal.

All this reminds me to be grateful for Kanoba actually talking to me when he had done something potentially dangerous. I am glad that we didn't end up in the hospital because I has having a mommy freak out attack. My kids survived. I almost didn't. Just another day in a mother's life I guess.